Nigel Clarke spent seven years working out shortcuts to help customers skip
through the dozens of call centre options.

If spending 10 minutes trying to navigate through an automated call centre gives you nightmares, imagine making 12,000 calls to these centres over seven years.

Nigel Clarke, an IT manager, documented each call to build a database of “shortcuts” to help people skip the endless lists of call centre options at leading companies.

He found that some firms had more than 80 options in their phone menus, with up to seven levels of menu to work through – something he described as “the modern equivalent of Dante’s circles of hell”.

It comes as research by consumer group Which? also found problems with call centre phone systems.

Which? investigated tested the phone systems of BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media in February and April this year. In the worst cases it took eight minutes to get through to an operator at Sky, and 17 minutes for a BT adviser to answer simple questions.

Mr Clarke, 53, said his crusade against the call centres started “naturally”, with notes taped to his computer.

He said: “I told a few friends and family and the database started to grow.

“As I researched it, I realised the reaction from people was always the same – that there were too many options, too many levels, and it took too long to get through.

“If you know what numbers to press, you can get through in seconds rather than minutes.”

For example, a Lloyds TSB home insurance customer who wants to report a water leak would normally have to spend more than four minutes wading through 78 menu options over seven levels, according to Mr Clarke.

Instead, dialling 1-3-2-1-1-5-4 as you progress through the levels will take you through in seconds.

The guide, at pleasepress1.com, lists the option menus for 560 services from 130 leading companies.

During his research, Mr Clarke also found that two thirds of companies used introductions or additional advertising between options.

Mr Clarke, who lives in Fawkham, Kent, said that with better menu design at least 3million caller hours could be saved.

He said HM Revenue & Customs was one of the worst offenders, with callers taking up to six minutes to reach the correct department.

As one of Britain’s busiest call centres, HMRC receives up to 60million calls a year.

An HMRC spokesman said the tax office was preparing to introduce speech-recognition technology this year, a solution that did not impress Mr Clarke.

“In my experience, voice recognition is hated even more than menu systems,” he said.

“If they just improved the design and published the options on their website, it would help their customers a lot.”

Richard Lloyd, Which?’s executive director, said: “It is maddening to be asked to choose from a series of options by a machine when you just want to speak to a human, especially when you want to complain.

“Six in 10 of us say we avoid using companies because of a reputation for poor customer service, so firms should try harder to get it right and stop wasting their customers’ time.”

The consumer group's research found several ways to cut through the call centre menus.

For example, randomly pressing a sequence of keys confuses Sky’s interactive voice response (IVR) system and will put you through to an operator, as will pressing the # key twice.

Which? also recommends tools on mobile phones that can help. The WeQ4u app, which can be downloaded to smartphones for free, keeps your place in a queue and calls you back when an operator is available.

TalkTalk customers can try the sales number and then ask to be transferred to customer services, and BT customers can use the same trick by dialling the “calling from overseas” number, where they will need to state their account number before being put straight through to an adviser.

If you want to avoid call centres altogether, Which? recommends using “chat” services on companies’ websites. Sky said this was the quickest way to get an answer from its customer service operators. BT claims that an adviser will respond to a web chat request within 30 seconds.

Alternatively, customers can send an email or tweet their query or complaint, which has the added advantage of providing a written record should you wish to challenge or prove communication in future.

Mr Clarke, who now works full time on the shortcuts website, has not kept count of how much he spent on the research calls.

“It’s taken quite a bit of time and money and effort, but I think it’s worthwhile,” he said.

“It was an itch I’ve been trying to scratch for many years. I knew something had to be done, and if it helps companies think about the consumer, that would be nice.”

Mr Clarke would like to see firms submitting their menu options to create a “verified” directory of shortcuts. “It’s so simple to do,” he said, “and it shows that the company cares about its customers. At least they can see the options before they dial.”